HIStory

My husband and I joined a new gym over the weekend. It’s a mid-sized, family-owned place that has plenty of aerobic equipment, weights, and some group classes.As I exercised I noticed various posters throughout the facility. There were several of muscle-man Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was very young, one each of the movies Flashdance and Saturday Night Fever, and a few others that brought me back to the 70s and 80s. I started to reminisce about those years and the celebrities who influenced me and set the exercise trends of the times.My husband has always been into lifting weights, while I bounced around from one fad to another — Jazzercise, kickboxing, step classes, aerobics, yoga, cycling, etc.

Several years ago while doing Jazzercise I talked with the instructor about the earlier days when we exercised barefoot with rather provocative spandex outfits, cut high at the thigh and complete with leg warmers (in case we got cold??)! She responded, “I wasn’t even born yet.” Ouch! Then came the parachute pants and Reebok sneakers. Somewhere along the lines I sported head and wrist bands. Nowadays it’s yoga pants. Thank God for that because nobody wants to see my middle-aged body in spandex and leg warmers!

As my mind wandered I started to wonder what the trends of the future will be. Arnold and those steroid-abusing figures from the 70s and 80s fortunately don’t seem to be in vogue these days, probably because many of those guys died young from the effects of the drugs on their hearts. Yet in their time, that was “in.” I realized right then and there that I won’t get to see the whole picture. I only get to see a small bit of the world's history during the brief period of time I am here. The things that are familiar to me will change, and I will not know how life changes, hopefully progresses, or how it all ends. I am only here for a brief part of the story.

It reminds me of the tale of the blind men who were placed around various parts of the elephant and then asked to describe it. Each man had a conflicting description because he was positioned at a different part of the elephant’s body. Another example is one I learned in class. If you place five people at a window overlooking a scene but from different floors of the same building, each will describe it differently. All are correct, but each one is different. That’s the way it is in life… we come and go, generation after generation, each getting a small glimpse and a different view because of the time we are on earth. If we had been born sooner or later, the “view” would be different.

I wonder what the exercise trends will be in the year 2100. How advanced will technology become? Will cancer be cured? Will pollution be a thing of the past? I will never know. In the epic book of world history, the time I live in is but a simple page. That’s humbling. It makes me realize that the big picture, like the elephant or the building, is not going to be fully revealed to me here on my little page. I only see that which I can see from my position in time and space, and there is much more than meets these little eyes of mine. In the grand scheme of things, it is not my story at all. It never was. It’s HIStory.

(for more on our stories: http://ninamariecorona.blogspot.com/2014/08/whats-your-story.html)